


Treat Me Like Fire

by kaliuchis



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Bisexual Scully, College, College AU, Dana Scully - Freeform, F/F, Scully - Freeform, The X-Files - Freeform, bi scully
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-06-01
Packaged: 2018-11-05 05:14:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11006721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaliuchis/pseuds/kaliuchis
Summary: It's Scully's freshman year in college, and she has no idea what to expect. She hasn't lived that sheltered of a life–moving all across the country due to her father's military service. However, her chemistry lab partner presents her with a challenge she has never been face-to-face with. Scully must learn how to understand her feelings and come to terms with something she has never once experienced throughout her nomadic life.





	1. First Day

The generic iPhone marimba beamed in Dana’s ear. Her eyes, groggy and slow to open, gazed heavily at the bright phone screen resting next to her. She let out an irritated moan, lazily moved her hand up to meet her phone, and turned off the alarm. She clumsily moved the phone to her face.

7 AM. On a Tuesday. Great.

She had been able to sleep in until 9 AM yesterday on her first day of classes, but today greeted her with an 8 AM and her longest class of her first semester of college: her chemistry lab.

Scully had always been passionate about the hard sciences; she had wanted to become a doctor for as long as she could remember. But waking up at 7 AM, having to handle hazardous chemicals without there being time to get caffeine in her system was not all too alluring. Despite her reservations and non-visible emotion, she was internally excited to be engaging in a chemistry lab: her favorite subject since she took it in high school.

Dana sat up and stared at her curtained window, hoping the filtered light would bring some sense of activity to her tired body. She slipped on her flip-flops and shuffled to her closet to grab her shower basket and a couple of towels. She caught the first glimpse of 7 AM Dana Scully in her mirror: straight bangs blown in every direction, red-dyed hair frizzed, her corny hand-me-down nightgown which she secretly loved wearing, and her designated shower flip-flops. 

A lovely sight.

She walked down the hallways to the communal showers. The lukewarm, barely pressurized water trickled down onto her body as she showered.

I don’t think I’ll get used to this, she thought to herself.

She showered as swiftly as she could, as the water would inevitably turn cold, even if one took the quickest shower humanly possible. At the least, it was a good way to wake her out of her groggy morning rhythm. She dried her body off, slipped her nightgown back on, wrapped her hair in a towel, grabbed her belongings, and walked back to her room, feeling slightly more awake.

When she got back, she opened up her laptop to double check the dress requirements for the lab. Lab coat, goggles, non-latex gloves, no contact lenses, long hair pulled back, long pants, no open-toed shoes. Simple enough. She didn’t want to wear anything too fancy in case a spill did happen, so she threw on her University of Michigan t-shirt she bought when she first toured the school and an old pair of loose yoga pants. She had a pair of running shoes in her closet, so she decided to wear those as well. She wasn’t dressing to impress anyone. Hell, she was going to be wearing a disposable lab coat and goggles. She wasn’t used to wearing her glasses; she really only wore them at night while reading before bed. She didn’t bother doing any makeup, just a little bit of foundation to cover up the small cluster of acne on her right jawline. She double checked her backpack, threw on her oversized denim jacket with what seemed like 100 pins and iron-on patches, and headed out to the lab.

Unfortunately, Dana didn’t think to check the weather in her slightly drowsy state, and stepped outside to sunny, cloudless, 70-degree weather. She rolled her eyes as subtly as she could–which was not very subtle for her–pushed up her glasses, and continued quickly on her walk to the lab. If she was going to be suffering in long pants and a jacket in the heat, she’d better make it as painless as possible. 

She made it safely to the lab building, albeit a bit sweaty. Lucky for her, the AC was on in the hallways, so she had some temporary relief before stepping foot into the lab. 

She went up to the third floor to put her belongings into a locker. She grabbed the items she needed out of her bag and proceeded downstairs. There was a lineup of students outside the room, with all but a couple of groups of friends silent. Dana joined the silent population, checking her phone and scrolling through her Facebook feed, which she quickly got bored of. Honestly, she couldn’t care less about what half of the people from her high school were doing. The people in her high school weren’t exactly the kindest to her throughout those years. She just put her phone back into her pocket and waited rather impatiently for the doors to open. 

A few minutes passed and an older woman with short, brunette hair, presumably the professor, stepped out from inside the lab, gesturing the large group of students in. The lab was much larger than Dana had imagined; she hadn’t yet had her first chemistry lecture, so she was unsure of the magnitude of her class. There must have been at least 100 people stepping into that lab. Section numbers were signified at the tops of each lab table, corresponding with the class number on any given student’s schedule. Dana opened her phone to check her schedule, and found herself in section 247. She gazed confusedly around the room searching for her number, and found it in a far corner of the room. She was the first one at the table, so she would nervously await the arrival of her lab partner. 

The table actually consisted of four separate lab stations, signifying that there would be four groups of two at each table. Scully was a bit anxious to learn of her lab partner, as she often had a difficult time making friends. She didn’t want to be the one to make the first gesture towards being partners; she would just wait until somebody approached her, hoping the person wouldn’t be too awful or judgmental towards her.

Three men soon accompanied her at the table, and she was thankful she wasn’t paired with any of them. Two of them had already known each other, and just from the way they were talking, she could tell they weren’t the most genuine of guys, either of them interjecting with a welcome week anecdote about a girl they heavily objectified at a party. Dana breathed a silent, unobvious sigh of relief that she wasn’t stuck with either of them. The other guy that joined their table seemed shy yet personable, but Dana wanted to stick with her plan of waiting it out. As she saw other lab stations fill, her anxieties started to grow.

What if I’m stuck with someone like the two gross guys at my table?

What if I get paired with a girl who’s just like one of my bullies from high school?

Dana wished these worries didn’t follow her here to college. She was really looking for a new start: a city she had never lived in far from her high school, no one from her graduating class attending the same school as her, a new haircut and color… she did not anticipate her high school anxieties creeping up into her head anew. She tried to shake the worry, but couldn’t. She was so preoccupied that she didn’t even notice the last person had made their way to the table and was standing right in front of her speaking to her.

“Doesn’t really look like we have a choice, but you wanna be lab partners?” 

Dana subtly shook her head as if snapping out of a trance, and looked up to see a tall person, hand on hip, standing in front of her.

“Sorry, what did you say?”

The taller person seemed unfazed. “I asked if you wanted to be lab partners.”

Dana observed the figure before her. They were tall, slender, and a bit muscular. They were black, with tightly curled hair elegantly flowing down just below their shoulders. They wore tight, black denim pants with a worn pair of checkered vans. Their slightly skin-tight maroon shirt read “ACTION IS A LANGUAGE,” paired with a light jean jacket with sewn-on patches closely distributed, much like Dana’s. Their nose was a gentle ski slope, their deep brown eyes powerful and intimidating, as if they were hunting for prey. Dana was slightly intimidated by how piercing their gaze was, and was a bit flustered.

“Oh, uh, yeah, definitely! I’m Dana,” she stammered.

“Cool, I’m Parker,” they replied.

Dana noticed the taller was still carrying her backpack. “Did you not know about the lockers upstairs?” she asked.

“I had a friend in this class last semester, and she told me the professor won’t mark you off on it if you have it,” they replied, with a voice quite stern and unwavering. They ran their hand through their hair, their locks effortlessly bouncing down in a perfect pattern.

Dana snapped out of yet another trance, although this one wasn’t anxiety induced. She wasn’t truly sure of what caused this one… it felt familiar, yet foreign all at once.

“Oh, by the way…” Parker started in a quieter tone. “If we’re gonna be working together for the next 14 weeks, I might as well let you know my pronouns are they/them.”

Pronouns? They? Them? Dana was unsure of what that meant. She had never met someone who had approached her in this manner before.

“What does that…” Dana asked, which was met abruptly with, “I’ll explain after class.” They had seemed a bit uncomfortable with further delving into the subject, so Dana just left it. She was still deeply curious; she had never been met with this situation before. She had moved all across the country due to her father’s service in the military and had experienced many facets of life, but she had no idea what their statement meant.

During her rumination, she realized her professor had begun lecturing, and immediately tuned into her voice. She was explaining the safety precautions to be taken and the experiment: a water displacement lab to measure density. Simple enough, Dana thought. She had done this multiple times in high school. However, something about her partner made her feel…. something. She knew it wasn’t anything bad about her partner, she was certain of that. However, she could not pinpoint what it was about her partner that was making her… not uneasy, not anxious… she couldn’t think of a word to describe how she was feeling. Perhaps nervous? Yet still, that didn’t really encompass her emotions. Her partner did intimidate her a bit, yes, but she was also curious about them. She almost wanted to initiate an invite to grab lunch after class, or at the very least some small talk during the lab. If she could even bring herself past her nerves…

Which she truly couldn’t. The only small talk they had was related to the lab itself. “What’s the room temperature again?” “It is 50 mL or 100 mL of water?” “Did you get .726 for this one?” Each time Dana felt the will to ask them a question about themselves, she remembered the piercing look their eyes cast. Dana reasoned that it must just be their natural stare, but part of it still struck her deeply. It wasn’t like the unfriendly stares she received in her high school halls, nor was it like the judging stares of strangers when she did something embarrassing in public. This felt… different, yet not unusual. She wanted to understand this emotion more, and she knew the only way she could is if she overcame her nerves and asked her to grab some lunch after class.

The two worked really well together, Parker was a bit more commandeering during the lab, which Dana was okay with. They worked fluidly and swiftly throughout the lab, with Parker handling most of the hands-on aspects and Dana handling the calculations. The two were among some of the first to finish the lab for the day. As the two double checked their calculations and answers among one another, Dana’s preoccupations still laid with asking her partner to go to the dining hall with her. Her anxieties shadowed her every thought. Why would they want to grab lunch with you? You’ve hardly spoken a word to her. You should’ve been more outspoken with them, then they actually would want to go to the dining hall with you. Finally, Dana did something she rarely did: she went against her anxiety-riddled mind, and simply blurted out the question.

“Do you want to grab something to eat at the dining hall after this?”

It was as if Dana’s thoughts had come to a screeching halt. She was rarely that impulsive! What was I thinking?! Her brain seemed to be screaming a thousand vulgarities and a slew of angry, negative remarks towards her action. Why would you do that? You know they’re going to say no! You should’ve eased into asking them to lunch! Her anxieties were no longer shadows, but bullets, pointing at a single target. One by one, taking aim and firing at her foolishness. One bullet was different from the rest, moreso a beacon flying overhead. With that shot, she snapped back to reality, and heard her partner utter the words “Yeah, I’m down.”

Another halt. Her mind was an impossible to navigate roadway, twisting in every direction, a path not even the owner of that mind could master. The weapons were lowered, dropped, disappeared. One armed brigade down. She was awaiting the next battalion to drop into her thoughts. They were subdued. 

“Cool, I just have to grab my bag upstairs, wanna come with?” Dana asked.

“Yeah man, no problem,” they replied.


	2. Introductions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dana and Parker exchange some thoughts and facts about themselves at a local coffee shop, and Parker and Dana offer challenges for the other.

As the two walked out of the lab and towards the elevator, Parker following close behind Dana, Dana could feel the former’s eyes piercing through her. They had such an intense gaze, one that immediately captures you, hypnotizes you…

The two didn’t exchange many words on the elevator up to grab Dana’s belongings. There wasn’t a thickness to the air, however. Dana felt comfortable. Her anxieties were still present, but they were calmed, under control. She felt as if a weight had been lifted off of her upon her sudden outburst of inviting them to lunch, and the space between had dissipated. She felt at peace.

As they made it to Dana’s locker, she asked, “Where were you thinking of eating?”

Parker’s disposition did not change. They were a difficult character to read. Dana had only known them for a few hours but could identify this trait right off the bat. With Dana’s anxiety, she was quick to read people’s emotions and dispositions across situations. However, with Parker, she just couldn’t figure them out. They had a calm and collected aura, yet there was some unrefined edge to them that Dana couldn’t wrap her mind around. There was just… something alluring about them.

“Wanna grab some pizza?” Parker responded quickly. As they spoke, Dana felt the air thicken once again. Time seemed to freeze between every spoken sentence. It had felt like minutes between responses, when it had only been mere seconds.

“Uh… I’m actually vegan, sorry,” Dana stammered. She was starting to feel difficult, like a hurdle Parker had to stumble over to connect to her.

“Damn, really? That’s rad… I could never do that. I am vegetarian, though,” they responded. 

The air dispersed once again.

“Yeah, it’s not as hard as you would think it is… You know any good vegan places around? I haven’t had much of a chance to explore the city much,” Dana asked.

“I know a nice cafe that has some vegan options, wanna head there? It’s like a ten minute walk.”

“Sure!” Dana stated, perhaps a little bit too excited. She just wanted to make as good of an impression as possible on Parker. She felt as if her atmosphere wasn’t as collected, as polished as theirs. She didn’t want to feign a personality, but she wanted to make a lasting impact on them. She refused to let her nerves get the best of her. She hadn’t had much luck making connections so far during the school’s welcome week save one guy on her floor, so this was a prime opportunity to make a lasting friendship at school. 

Do not screw this up. Do not make a fool of yourself. Do not. Do not. Do not.

Her thoughts were racing again as she stood at Parker’s side during the walk. They were tall, statuesque, familiar yet mysterious. Their slender body walked in a most divisive manner, calculating, while Dana just… walked. She knew she had to stop being so critical of herself, but it was difficult when her short stature and messy hair were compared to the inimitable individual by her side.

Silence was shared by the two again on the walk. Dana wanted to speak up, make some small talk, something she had grown to be an expert at after all those years of moving from school to school, city to city, but college was different. Or rather, Parker was different. She wasn’t sure which it was. 

“It’s right up after this block,” Parker stated, snapping Dana out of her pensive thoughts.

“Oh, nice,” she replied. God, say something else! Stop making a fool of yourself! “So… what do they have here?”

“You know, typical cafe food. Some sandwiches. Coffee. Pretty sure they’ve got some vegan baked goods for you,” they responded.

Parker stood with their hand on their hip and ran their hand through their hair, which bounced lightly back into place. Dana assumed this to be their signature pose, as it was the exact same posture and gesture presented to her when they were first introduced at the lab table. The light turned green and Parker effortlessly shifted from their stance to their artful walk as they crossed the street together.

They arrived at the cafe, and it was much smaller than Dana had expected. Much emptier, as well, especially with being a ten minute walk from a huge college campus. There were five stools against a tabletop opposite a counter where a young barista was making coffee beverages and a petite, short-haired girl was taking orders.

“Hey Parker, what’s up?” a somewhat deep voice called from the counter. It came from the petite girl at the register. 

Great, Dana thought to herself, I know nobody here and Parker knows everyone. Her anxiety was rapid fire in her mind again.

Of course you had to blurt out an invite. Why couldn’t you just take it slow? Why couldn’t you just suggest a restaurant?

Dana was beating herself up. She couldn’t compete; she couldn’t make a lasting impression against these close friends Parker already had.

“Hey, lemme introduce you to my friend. She basically runs this place,” Parker suggested to Scully. Scully looked up at the taller with a soft smile on her face, as if she was hiding the turmoil churning in her mind.

“O… Okay sure!” she replied.

The two walked up to the counter together. “This is Dana. She’s my lab partner this semester.”

“What’s up? I’m Ash,” the petite girl replied, almost in an affect as nonchalant as Parker. “What are you guys having?”

Dana didn’t have a chance to look at the menu and stammered, “Uh, one second. Actually… can I start with a small iced soy latte? Hazelnut?” 

“Yeah you’ve got it,” Ash replied. “You grabbing anything, Parker?”

“Yeah just gimme a blueberry muffin. Also throw in a vegan cookie for Dana here.”

“Oh, uh, no Parker you don’t have to pay for me!” Dana erupted, obviously flustered by their gesture, digging to grab her wallet out of her backpack. Parker laid their hand on her arm.

“Chill man, Ash has got us,” Parker said calmly, in such a tranquil songbird tone. Dana was caught staring into their eyes too long and shyly looked away. “Oh, thank you,” she replied, hushed and nervous. She did not feel she was making the best impression, especially since there were now multiple people sizing her up.

“We gonna catch you at the meeting tonight, Parker?” Ash asked.

“Shit, that’s already tonight?” Parker responded.

“Yeah! Stacy’s gonna be there too.”

“Alright count me in.” Once their exchange was over, Ash passed the duo their food and Dana’s drink. Parker dropped a couple of dollars in the tip jar and raised her hand, not waving it, to gesture goodbye. The two made their way over to the counter on the opposite side of the store and got settled.

“What meeting?” Dana found herself asking. She was intrigued and wanted to get to know Parker more, albeit she was still fighting against her anxieties.

“Oh it’s the LGBT union meeting, Ash is the president,” Parker retorted.

Dana was confused; she had no idea what that meant. She assumed it was something she should’ve known, especially with Parker tossing it out so casually. “What’s that, exactly?” Dana questioned quietly.

Parker offered her a smirk with a slight eye roll. “Oh, you’re new to this whole thing, aren’t you?” Parker turned their head towards the window and let out a sigh. “Tell you what. Why don’t you join me tonight and see what it’s all about? Better than me explaining it to you.”

“What does LGBT mean though? I don’t want to be getting into something without knowing what I’m stepping in,” Dana replied, her anxieties rising with the volume of her voice. She hated being out of the loop of things, and whenever she was getting frustrated, it reflected in her raised voice.

“Lesbian, gay, bi, trans,” Parker recited, as if they had explained it a thousand times. Dana was relieved that she understood, but she had never met any individuals who called themselves any of those titles. She herself only had a very basic understanding of what they meant; she knew they existed and what they signified, but she didn’t understand all of the entities associated with that identity. She wasn’t expecting Parker to teach her, either; that would be exhausting for them. 

“I’m… not sure if I want to go. I don’t think I would really… fit in there. See I’ve never even met someone… gay before,” Scully responded.

Parker let out a chuckle and shook their head. “Kid, you’re talking to a lesbian. You’ve gotta open up your horizons, learn about people, cultures, ideologies different from yours… College is there for you to explore that shit,” Parker stated, in an ever nonchalant manner, as usual. “Hell, I was just like you last year. Didn’t know what the fuck LGBT meant either. Same boat as you. You figure it all out with time. You from a small town?”

Dana was relieved that Parker was being honest and open with her, especially with something that appeared to be so personal. Maybe it wasn’t as personal and taboo as Dana had grown up thinking it was. It was never talked about in her house. Not once. She had heard vague mentions of it on the news, but her parents never once uttered the word “gay” in her household.

“Well… not really. I moved around a lot. My dad serves in the military, so I’ve lived in San Diego, Nashville, New Jersey… I can’t even count them all,” Dana replied.

“Oh no way. I’m actually not even from the states. I’m from Trinidad. Parents moved to Florida when I was very young though, so I don’t really remember much about the island. It all ties into my activism though. I’m a huge activist for diasporic support in communities. Also for LGBT rights. The two intersect pretty often.”

“That’s… actually really cool. I’m such a soft spoken person, I’m not sure how invested in activism I could get… Do you like, go to protests?” Dana asked.

“Ha! I can tell, believe me. I can read people pretty well. And protests and marches, yeah. We do public demonstrations in city parks. Anything to get our voices heard.”

Dana felt herself coming up short in this conversation. She didn’t really have any interesting facts about herself. She’d never been involved in activism. She considered herself a feminist, yes, but not an activist. Really the only self identifying fact she could gather about herself was the fact that she moved around so frequently, but Parker already matched that. She found herself going for a basic question to follow up.

“Yeah, everyone can sense that about me… So what’s your major?” Dana questioned.

“Biochemical engineering, you?” Parker responded.

“I’m undeclared right now, but I’m on a pre-med track. I’ve always wanted to be a doctor, ever since I was a kid.”

“Oh sweet… I would love to do that but I don’t think I could handle working in the medical field. Too many lives I wouldn’t be able to save. I’d make myself depressed. But I’ve always had such an interest in science and math. Hell, for career day I shadowed an engineer at a plant in Miami. It was just… super intriguing and I knew I wanted to involve chemistry in my career too, so I went with it,” Parker stated. “So what made you go vegan?”

Dana looked as if she was scanning her brain for answers. “Well, I have an incident from my childhood that I connected with things I learned about animal agriculture, and I realized they aren’t really all that different. When I was a kid, my brother shot a garter snake with a B.B. gun, and I cried my eyes out.” Dana shook her head and laughed. “I was such a tomboy as a kid, I was always messing around with my brother in the yard. But seeing him do that just made me so upset, and it wasn’t until a few years later that I had realized if that made me so sad, why don’t I get upset at all of the pigs, cows, and chickens who lose their lives every year?” Veganism was something Dana was particularly passionate about. Perhaps she was an activist. Perhaps she was blooming and would find herself, like Parker stated earlier.

“Oh word, y’know I should really give going vegan a try. I always psych myself out with it, say I can’t do it,” Parker responded.

“Go for it! I can help you with it!” Dana responded excitedly. She loved when others expressed enthusiasm about going vegan.

“Alright I’ve got a deal for you. Come with me to the meeting tonight, and I’ll join you in veganism.” Parker asked, sticking out their hand to shake.

Dana didn’t hesitate. “Deal,” she replied.

“Awesome, toss me your phone and I’ll put my number in it,” Parker stated. “Hey, Ash, when’s the meeting tonight?” They called.

“It’s at 6 in the LGBT Student Center,” she replied.

“Alright, see you then, Dana!” Parker responded with the brightest smile Scully could remember, stood up, and waltzed out the door.

Dana was taken aback. She had know idea what she had gotten herself into. She was going to a club that she didn’t even belong in. She thought perhaps Parker saw potential in her. After all, they did say that they were just like her their freshman year. Dana believed this to be good for her. She was reaching outside her comfort zone, far outside it, and while nervous, she was excited to see what she had in store for her later. She was especially happy that she found someone who considered her a friend. 

She realized she never asked Parker to elaborate on what the pronouns they had mentioned meant, so she would save the question for tonight. She finished her latte, tossed out her trash, and headed back to her dorm to relax before tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to publish! My laptop screen broke and was getting repaired by Apple. My laptop is back though so I should be updating more frequently! Also keep in mind that I work two jobs, and those always come first, so my apologies if this isn't updated super quickly.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fic I've written in a while, so sorry if I'm a bit rusty! The next chapter will be Scully and Parker starting to get to know each other, so you can hear more about Parker as a character!


End file.
